Archive for the ‘Caspian’ Category

By Stuart Williams TEHRAN (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin left Iran overnight Wednesday after a trip which saw him reinforce ties with the Islamic republic and distance himself from Western warnings over its nuclear programme.

Putin attended a summit of Caspian Sea states and held talks with top Iranian leaders in the first visit by a Kremlin chief since World War II — a boost for Iran at a time of increasing Western pressure.

His trip was marked by the heaviest security following a report a squad of suicide bombers planned to kill him ….

TEHRAN, Iran – Russian leader Vladimir Putin met his Iranian counterpart Tuesday and implicitly warned the U.S. not to use a former Soviet republic to stage an attack on Iran. He also said nations shouldn’t pursue oil pipeline projects in the area if they weren’t backed by regional powers.

At a summit of the five nations that border the inland Caspian Sea, Putin said none of the nations’ territory should be used by any outside countries for use of military force against any nation in the region. It was a clear reference to long-standing rumors that the U.S. was planning to use Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic, as a staging ground for any possible military action against Iran.

Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) — The leaders of China and Kazakhstan agreed to finance and build a network of pipelines to supply the world’s fastest-growing major economy with oil and gas from the Caspian Sea region.

“The Caspian will be linked to western China,” Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev told reporters in the capital Astana today after meeting with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao.

“These are major projects and today we reached agreement on these issues.”